- I don’t have any contemporary descriptions of Scots-Irish accents in
Tyrone in the 1800s but I do have some from Antrim which suggest that at that
period, the Ulster Scots spoke with a clear Scottish accent. (Today it has
modified a bit though it remains quite different from the rest of Ireland). I
think Tyrone may have been pretty much the same as Antrim. I have included some
other observations on Scottish influence in Ireland, for entertainment.
- A Presbyterian Minister brought up in Aghadowey, Co Derry wrote this of
his childhood in the 1820s: “Aghadowey had originally been settled by a Scotch
immigration and I found that my new neighbours spoke as pure Scotch as a man
might hear in any part of Ayrshire.”[1]
- Describing his youth in Ballycahan, parish of Dunboe, again not too far
from Drumachose a local farmer said: “Over a space of 15 to 20 miles from east
to west, and about the same from north to south, Scottish surnames, a broad
Scottish dialect and an almost universally diffused Presbyterianism indicated
the title of the people to call themselves “Scotch”. Episcopalians were few and
a Roman Catholic as rare as a black swan.”[2]
- Here’s what another source says about Scottish influence in Ireland:
“What has been thecontribution of Scottish immigrants to Ireland? Like other
peoples, the UlsterScots have a somewhat self-admiring historical myth about
their contribution toIrish life. There were echoes of it in the words I have
quoted from J. J. Shawbut it was enunciated resonantly by the Reverend Henry
Cooke, one of its mosteloquent exponents, addressing the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotlandin 1836:
“ Our Scottishforefathers were planted in the most barren portions of our lands
- the mostrude and lawless of the provinces - Scottish industry has drained its
bogs andcultivated its barren wastes; substituted towns and cities for its
hovels andclachans and given peace and good order to a land of confusion and
blood.”
- Like most such myths it contains elements of truth, as does the
alternative Irish nationalist myth which portrays the Scots as greedy robbers
of the best Irish land. Scots immigrants have stamped their personality upon
much of Ulster and have penetrated to all parts of Ireland. Scottish influence
is still audible in some Ulster dialects and a vocabulary loaded with words
like 'skunner', 'gunk', 'sleekit' and 'girn'. Scottish industry has brought
prosperity to parts of Ulster but not to its bogs and barren wastes. The Scots
did not introduce any revolutionary agricultural methods or implements though
their two-eared Scotch spade gave the Irish the expression 'digging with the
wrong foot'. Later came Scotch carts, ploughs and threshing machines. When the
north-east of Ireland was relatively prosperous there were those who attributed
that prosperity, and the success of the industries which provided it, to the
Calvinism and special talents of the descendants of Scots settlers. Less is
heard of such ideas in a period of economic decline. Geography and the
emergence of entrepreneurs of genius like Harland and Wolff neither of them
Ulster Scots - had more to do with nineteenth-century industrial success than
religion or race. Yet, as a modern Scottish historian has observed, 'it is
impossible not to suspect that Calvinist seriousness of purpose had some effect
on both intellectual and economic life'.
- As well as good farmers and businessmen the Ulster Scots have produced
good doctors, teachers, preachers and engineers. If they have produced little
great literature, their eighteenth-century vernacular poets can stand
comparison with Burns himself. Perhaps inevitably, their best writers and
scholars, like Helen Waddell and Lord Kelvin, have found fame outside Ireland.
Their good grammar schools and Belfast's university, which, in its early days,
owed much to Scottish models, reflect their respect for education. They have
built neat, functional homes but few fine buildings, though John Wesley
described the meeting-house of Belfast's First Presbyterian congregation as
'the completest place of public worship I have ever seen'.
- Commonly caricatured as a gloomy and silent bigot, the Ulster Scot is
recognised by those who know him well as a loyal friend with a mordant sense of
humour, critical of human pretensions and self-importance. He has not, as Henry
Cooke claimed, 'brought peace and good order to a land of confusion and blood';
instead he has contributed his share to disharmony and conflict in Ireland, if
only because he cannot compromise what he believes to be sacred principle,
which others may see as self-interest. It may be significant that when, earlier
this century, he sought a symbol with which to focus and express his opposition
to Irish Home Rule, he found it in the great Scottish Covenants of the
seventeenth century, originally devised to safeguard the purity of the
Reformation in Scotland and in the British Isles. History and geography have
combined to make Ulster as much a Scottish as an Irish province.[3]
- I came across this wee poem recently in Ballymena library, which probably
sets out Scots-Irish ancestors feelings about their own identity and culture
quite well. It was written in the 1800s by Samuel Thomson, a weaver poet who
lived near Ballymena. “To Captain MacDougall at Castle Upton.*”
I love my nativeland no doubt
Attached to herthro’ thick and thin
But tho’ I’mIrish all without
I’m every itemScotch within.
Thomson was oneof a group of weaver poets, mostly self employed men who worked
from home. Theyhad strong connections with SW Scotland where their ancestors
had mostly lived.Thomson was heavily influenced by Robert Burns, the master
poet-ploughman, whomhe met in Scotland at least once, and wrote in his
vernacular style. He alsocomposed a poem entitled “To a hedgehog” which was a
reference to a militarytactic employed at the Battle of Antrim in 1798 (a
hedgehog being a formationof men) but anyone familiar with Burns work will
immediately recognize theallusions to his poems “To a mouse” and “To a louse.”
* Castle Upton is a partially fortifiedhouse in Templepatrick. Built in 1611, I
assume it was originally a PlantationBawn.
Elwyn
[1] Autobiography of Thomas Witherow 1824 – 1890 Page 25.
BallinascreenHistorical Society 1990
[2] A Kennedy chronicle – Biography of Alexander Kennedy of Ballycahan1818 –
1885 by Hugh Alexander Hezlett (Coleraine library)
[3] From the Appletree Press title: The People of Ireland (currentlyout of
print).
From: Ron McCoy via CoTyroneList <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Cc: Ron McCoy <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2019, 20:48
Subject: Re: [CoTyroneMailingList] Irish Bally---ony
Hi BeverlyWhen I worked in Scotland in 1974 I took a couple of trips to
Northern Ireland. When I went there the voices and accents I heard sounded very
much like the old people I grew up with from around the Ottawa Valley Canada
though they where four generations removed. The longer I was there the easier
it was for me to slip into the way of speaking they had. People from Northern
Ireland who just met me would place my home some where around Ballymoney. Today
television and people making fun of anyone who is suppose to have an Irish
accent has pretty much muted the lilt and phraseology of the Northern Irish in
Canada and I suspect it has dampened it as well in native Ireland. I believe
the voices would have been a mingling of the old Scottish language who came
with the Undertakers to Ulster. So the language would not have been the same as
later 1800 Scottish, first because it was from an earlier age and it was
separated by the Channel. Also it would very likely be co-mingled with Irish
inhabitants who lived there as well. Together I suspect they had their own
slang, phrases, stories and language short cuts used consistently by them but
not the English or Scottish. The language would be a kind of Founders language.
We hear that in Quebec today with people from some regions who still speak
very old form of French. That would be my guess.CheersRon McCoy
On 2019-01-14 2:45 p.m., Beverley Ballantine via CoTyroneList wrote:
Are these sayings, and lilting voices, of native Gaelic origin? Or are they
Scottish? I would like to know how a mid 19th century Tyrone Scots-Irish
person sounded like when first in America. Thank you and great transcription
work.Beverley Ballantine
Sent from my iPad
On Jan 14, 2019, at 10:11 AM, Rick Smoll via CoTyroneList
<[email protected]> wrote:
Love that "Paper never refuses ink …" Very applicable today with revision:
"The internet never refuses a keystroke …" Rick Smoll -----Original
Message-----
From: Ron McCoy via CoTyroneList <[email protected]>
To: Gordon Wilkinson via CoTyroneList <[email protected]>
Cc: Ron McCoy <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, Jan 14, 2019 6:13 am
Subject: Re: [CoTyroneMailingList] Irish Bally---ony
My mom and dad used folk expressions liberally, my mom being more guilty then
my dad but by far the greatest offender was my neighbour who was a wealth of
folk expressions. She is now gone and sadly her expressions have not been
recorded but I am sure would have filled volumes. These I believe were handed
down generation after generation. One of my favorites was used to deflate my
budding but inflated educational ego. I would be explaining to her some great
scientific break through I had just learned at school and she would look at me
with kind but skeptical eyes and say, " how do you know that." and I would say
I read it in a text book to which she would simply reply, " Ah well, Paper
never refuses ink. Now does it?" On the same vein my father would simply say to
me ," Do you know that for a fact Mr. McCoy or did some one just tell you
that?" When it was said with that deep and melodic Ottawa Valley accent which
was in reality a Northern Ireland lilt one could not be truly offended. I heard
these expressions and so many more oft repeated as a child and a young person
growing up and sadly I took them for granted but wished in my heart I could
hear them all again. They bring back great memories of kind and wise people, I
miss them deeply...
CheersRon McCoy
On 2019-01-13 10:33 p.m., Gordon Wilkinson via CoTyroneList wrote:
Hi Listers,As a kid in Belfast, I was intrigued by so many Irish place names
starting in Bally... Those who know tell me it's derived from the Gaelic 'Baile
na', meaning 'place of'. My mother would recite with a smile, the popular ditty
of the time:If you weren't so Ballymena with your old Ballymoney, I'd buy a
Ballycastle for my own Ballyholme.My mother was one for such sayings, so much
so you'd be forgiven if you thought she'd kissed the Blarney, but I doubt she
was ever that far south.
There must be lots of these folk expressions which have fallen into disuse and
now sadly lost.
Gordon
--
_________________________________
Nereda & Gordon Wilkinson, Hyde Park, South Australia.
Web: www.ozemail.com.au/~neredon Skype id: neredon
Emails: [email protected] [email protected]
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